Seriously bursting with flavor, you’d never guess these Vegan Whole Wheat Lemon Pistachio Sweet Rolls are made with no eggs or butter. A perfect lemony glaze topped with crushed pistachios.
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Soooo can we just talk about the fact that it’s been over five months since I last brought you rolls?! I actually even ended that particular post telling you I was planning on testing a vegan version of my cinnamon rolls and sharing sooner rather than later. Well, I did test those rolls by replacing the egg with more milk. And it worked! I actually made that version for my family for our Christmas brunch. And then I was going to make more rolls for the blog after that, but other ideas happened first… five months of ideas and recipes posted before another roll of any kind! (Food bloggers you know how it is.) It wasn’t until I was scrolling through my Instagram feed the other week and I came across a picture of my cinnamon rolls and I just knew it was time for some more roll action.
Being springtime, and the fact that I’ve been on a serious lemon kick lately (thanks, Les) I figured I would bring you another lemon treat to add to your spring baking list. But I didn’t want to do just plain ole lemon sweet rolls. I had to get a little creative. Enter: CRUSHED PISTACHIOS. Alright so maybe that’s not uber creative, but I just so happened to have everything on hand. It’s great when a recipe idea comes to you and thank ‘sweet baby Jesus!’ you didn’t have to go out to the store. Can I get a HOLLA?
But guys… They are SO lemony I almost can’t believe it. We’re using the zest of THREE lemons in these sweet rolls. As well as putting fresh lemon juice in the filling, AND with the glaze. OH em gee.
Here’s What You Need
- whole wheat white flour
- quick yeast
- granulated sugar
- salt
- coconut oil
- coconut milk
- lemons
- powdered sugar for glaze
- pistachios
Okay, so I know yeast rolls can seem like a lot of work, but it just takes a couple times to make them and you’ll feel like a pro in no time.
Just a couple notes… Because these rolls are made with whole wheat white flour, they are not going to be as light and fluffy as your traditional rolls using regular all-purpose. So if you’re used to baking with traditional all-purpose flour and you make these and find them a little more dense… well that’s because they probably are. But I can assure you with all of the lemon going on in these rolls, I don’t think you’ll miss the white flour one bit! Plus by using whole wheat white flour, coconut oil, and coconut milk, we can say these Lemon Pistachio Sweet Rolls have more nutritional value 😉
I took some extra time to take pictures of some of the process for you because I want to show you how easy it is working with yeast! Especially quick rise yeast, used in this recipe here. (If you need some tips on working with yeast, check out this post from Red Star Yeast.)
After you get your dough together you have to wait for it to rise.
Once the dough has doubled in size, about an hour, you roll it out and sprinkle with the lemon sugar mixture and lemon zest.
Then you roll up the dough and using a large, sharp knife gently cut into even rolls, about 9 rolls depending on the size of your dish.
Once you place your rolls in your baking dish, let the rolls rest and rise a little more.
Then all that’s left is to bake and top with the lemon glaze and crushed pistachios!
Yuummmm.
It helps if you read through the entire recipe first before beginning, so you get a better handle on all of the steps. I know it seems like a lot, but it really isn’t too bad! Not to mention totally worth it, duh. ?
Vegan Whole Wheat Lemon Pistachio Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 2 1/4-1/2 cups whole wheat white flour, plus a little more for rolling
- 2 TBS granulated sugar, or dry sweetener of choice
- 1 packet, 2¼ tsp of instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup canned coconut milk, lite
- 2 TBS water
- 1 TBS coconut oil
For the filling:
- 3 TBS softened coconut oil
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, or dry sweetener of choice
- 2 TBS lemon juice, about ½ a lemon
- Zest of 2 medium lemons
For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 TBS lemon juice, or more for thinner glaze
- Top with zest from another lemon, plus crushed pistachios
Instructions
- Grease a 9″ pie dish (or square baking dish) with coconut oil and set aside.
- In your stand mixer bowl with paddle attachment, add 2 cups flour, 2 TBS coconut sugar, yeast, and salt together. Stir until well combined, then turn off mixer.
- In a microwave safe bowl, warm coconut milk, water, and coconut oil together until mixture is hot to touch, but not boiling. I did 15 second increments, and it was about 45 seconds. You can also use the stovetop.
- With mixer paddle attachment running, slowly add your milk mixture to flour until combined.
- Change attachment to dough hook and knead dough for about 5 minutes. You may need to add a bit more flour here, likely a 1/4-1/2 cup more. Dough should be elastic and start to pull away from edge of bowl when it is ready.
- Oil large bowl and shape dough into ball, place dough in bowl and cover with towel and let rise in warm environment until dough has doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
- Once dough has doubled in size, lightly cover rolling pin and flat surface with flour. Roll out dough into a 15×9 inch rectangle. (Be patient, and roll gently. If you’re new to this it could take some practice! Don’t use too much flour or your dough will be stiff.)
- In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and lemon juice, set aside.
- Using spatula, spread softened coconut oil on dough, and sprinkle lemon sugar mixture evenly, and zest of two lemons. Roll up dough into a log shape. Putting the seam side down, use a large sharp knife and cut into 9 rolls. Transfer rolls to prepared dish and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free environment. This can be done by preheating the oven to 200F, shutting off, and letting the rolls rise in the warm oven.
- Once the rolls have risen again slightly, preheat oven to 350F (take rolls out and wait for oven to get up to 350F). Bake lemon rolls for 18-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Then, if necessary, cover top of rolls with foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Covering the rolls for the last 5-10 minutes will prevent them from getting too brown on the top. My rolls took about 25 minutes total.
- Once rolls have cooled for about 10 minutes, cover with lemon glaze and top with more lemon zest and crushed pistachios, enjoy!
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